WTO Chair Programme
Houcine Boughanmi
Department of Natural Resource Economics
College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences
SQU
The WTO Chairs Programme is a partnership
between WTO (ITTC) and selected academic
institutions in countries members of WTO-
New 2014
Pioneers 2010
OBJECTIVES OF THE WTO CHAIR
PROGRAMMES
Enhance knowledge and better understanding of
WTO trading system (multi-lateral trading) among
students, academicians, and policy makers through
curriculum development, research, and
outreach activities
RESEARCH FOCUS
ADRESSING FOOD SECURITY IN THE MENA
REGION THROUGH WTO MULTI-LATERAL
TRADING SYSTEM AND MARKET ORIENTED
FOOD POLICIES
MENA Countries should pursue a threepillar approach Strategy to food security
Wheat (Million Tons)
100
1.
1. Adress
AddressDemand
demand
80
Total Wheat demand
60
exposure
Mange
3. 3.
Managing
exposure
to import risks
to global price
50
40
Total Wheat Supply
30
productivity
Increase Agricultural
2.2.Increase
agricultural productivity
20
10
2010
2015
2020
2030
2040
2050
Source:Michelle Battat and Julian Lampietti ( Adapted from IFPRI 2010).
Note: Data are based on a model that generates illustrative projections for Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa
region. Data from the “Baseline Perfect Mitigation” scenario were used.
Food Security: is there a role for WTO?
 Agreement on Agriculture
(AOA)- 1994
The Three “Pillars”
Market access
“to establish a fair and a
market-oriented
agricultural trading
system”
Export competition
Domestic support
IS WTO defending an outdated vision of food
security?
“….WTO agenda has failed to
adapt, and developing
countries are rightly
concerned that their hands
will be tied by trade rules
Olivier De SchutterUN Special Rapporteur
on the right to food 2008-2014
… WTO rules leave little
policy space for
developing countries to
put measures in place to
enhance local production
“Supporting local food
production is the first
building block … and
trade must complement
local production, not
justify its abandonment”
Do AoA rules fits todays trade environment?
 Market environment of AOA
URAoA
Negotiations
Start
of DDA
Collapse of
Doha talks
Almost all rules and provisions in URAOA aim at regulating/ limiting
the policies which have a depressing effect on international prices
Food Security Policy Space in the AOA
Policy space refers to the autonomy
available to countries to implement policies
or commit budget expenditures which are
not limited or constrained by AoA rules
Policy space for import protection
Average tariff structure by group of countries, 2013
80
70
60
50
Average bound tariffs (%)
40
Average applied tariffs(%)
30
20
10
0
LDCs
Developing countries
Developed countries
Arab Countries
Policy space and domestic support
Green Box Policies (AoA: Annex 2)
• Have no, or at most minimal, trade-distorting effects or effects on production
• All countries
• Unlimited
De Minimus Rule (AoA: Article 6.4)
• 10 % of the value of total agricultural production for non specific measures (LDC)
• 10% of the value of the basic agricultural product for specific measures (LDC)
 Development Box (AoA: developing) (Art.6.2)
• Measures to encourage agricultural and rural development (investment subsidies, input
subsidies) which are an integral part of the development programmes are
exempt of any reduction
WTO Rules Applying to
Public Food Reserves (Par3 annex 2 AOA)
Expenditures in relation to the accumulation and holding of stocks of
products for food security purposes
 Conditions
• Purchases made at current market prices
• Sales at no less than the current domestic market price
• For developing countries purchase price can be made at
administered price, but
But
• The gap between the purchasing administered price and the
reference world price should be considered s trade distorting
support which is limited (de minimis ceiling).
 The deadlock is about to make that support green (without limit)